


The Ugliest Creature You've Ever Seen

by Snickerdoodle225



Category: Lore Olympus (Webcomic)
Genre: Ancient Greece, Angst and Porn, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Smut, Goddesses, Gods, Heterosexual Sex, I have no idea what I'm doing, I'm just tagging things, Love, Love Confessions, Mount Olympus (Ancient Greek Religion & Lore), Mutual Pining, Not Beta Read, Nymphs & Dryads, Pining, Quickies, Secret Identity, Secrets, Semi-Public Sex, Sex, Smut, Vaginal Sex, i never have a beta, olympus
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-08
Updated: 2021-02-08
Packaged: 2021-03-13 20:26:51
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,064
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29284503
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Snickerdoodle225/pseuds/Snickerdoodle225
Summary: Aphrodite left Ampelus in the human realm and asked Eros to go pick her up. Eros starts to put the pieces together about Psyche.
Relationships: Eros/Psyche (Lore Olympus)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 35





	The Ugliest Creature You've Ever Seen

**Author's Note:**

> If you find spelling or grammar errors, I'm sorry. I did this at some indecent hour of the morning and just posted it.

There was something about Ampelus that Eros just couldn’t put his finger on. The deep purple nymph was pretty and all, but there was something abstract and interesting about her that Eros, try as he might, couldn’t quantify. Had he seen her somewhere before? Before she came to work for his mother, because obviously he had seen her several times since then. Ampelus confounded him in a way he wasn’t used to. 

Her vague answers about being forced to marry against her will still haunted him. Did nymphs have weird marriage customs like the humans did? And only ‘good luck’ got her out of it? There was more to her story. 

Not that the woman wasn’t allowed to have secrets, because she was and Eros wasn’t about to pry into her personal life. But deep in his soul he felt that there was something more to that she wanted to share but wasn’t sure how. And he couldn’t help but feel like the story included the answer to his wondering about having seen her somewhere before. 

The conundrum that was Ampelus would have to wait however, because as of this moment, Aphrodite had returned home from some part of Olympus or another and was yelling for Eros to meet her in the kitchen. 

Eros sighed as he sat up in his bed. Ever since the incident with Psyche, his mother had been even more deranged and demanding than usual. And while Eros knew he had made a mistake with the mortal woman, it wasn’t the mistake Zeus and his mother thought he had made. His mistake wasn’t falling in love with a mortal, it had been not trusting her with his godhood. 

But now, Psyche was gone, and Eros had no idea where to even begin looking for her. He had gone back to search her family sometime ago, but she wasn’t there. Her family believed her dead, or at the very least lost to them forever since they had no body as proof. Strange, really.

As he made his way to his mother, Eros tried very hard to focus on the present instead of what went wrong with Psyche. That thought process always led him down a rabbit hole of pain. 

“Hello, munchkin! Can you do me a favor? I’m exhausted.” Aphrodite was sprawled out on the couch, martini in hand. Eros knew he had no choice but to do whatever she needed, but in reality he didn’t mind doing favors for his mother. For the most part they were harmless errands, the kidnapping of Persephone notwithstanding. 

“Sure, Mama Bear. What do you need?”

“I left Ampelus in charge of a minor beauty situation in the mortal realm, and she’s going to need a ride home in about an hour. She said she had it handled and could easily wait for me, but if you could go get her, it would be a huge help.”

“And why did you leave her there to begin with?” Eros asked in an exasperated tone. 

“Because after this drink, Agape has a performance at school that your father and I promised her we would go to,” Aphrodite said casually before she tipped back the entire martini into her mouth and hauled herself off the sofa. The dress she wore was still very much in the style of the mortal realm, and with a flick of her wrist it shifted into a more Olympus appropriate summer sun dress with gold flowers. Eros noticed with a sigh of chagrin that the flowers matched his father’s skin. 

“Yeah, I’ll go get Ampelus. Where did you leave her?”

“In a small town just east of Athens. Shouldn’t be too hard to find. I told her to wait in the woods to the north of town for me.”

Eros only nodded before he went back to his room to prepare for his trip to the mortal realm. As a god, finding a nymph wouldn’t be too difficult for him. 

He opened his closet and pulled out his mortal realm attire, laying it carefully on the bed. His father had commissioned this special for him, an almost matched set to Ares’s own armor. And the last time he had worn it had been to rescue Psyche from the arranged marriage with that awful old man. He had first fallen in love with Psyche in this leather armor, and he had told her he was the ugliest creature she had ever seen. It seemed like a necessity at the time, to keep her from asking questions about his wings and his skin color, but the more Eros thought about the whole situation, he realized all the places he messed up. 

Pulling on the armor, he told himself Ampelus was waiting for him, and hurried to leave and find her. 

~~

Ampelus leaned against a tree as she waited for Aphrodite to return for her. The mortals they had been helping along to see the beauty in the world were perfectly situated to create that beauty in the land and in themselves, and Ampelus thought that in general it was a job well done. 

Prepared for a long wait, Ampelus had purchased a meat pie and some fruit from the vendors in the square. Aphrodite had said she wouldn’t be back until long after dark, and the sun was only now beginning to set on the human realm. 

The human realm. The place she had been born and raised a human. The place where her family now believed her dead. An empty grave lay not far from here with her name on it and a coin pressed into the ground. And not her name as a nymph, but her real name. The name her mother had given her. The name the man she loved whispered into her skin as he caressed her body. 

But the man she loved wasn’t a man at all, was he? He was a god, and not just in the metaphorical sense. He had wings and power. He had strength and pastel skin. He lived on Olympus, where she now served his mother. To what purpose, Ampelus still wasn’t sure. 

_I want to know how much my son really loves you._

Aphrodite’s word rang in her head. Did Eros really love her? Even if he did, how could he forgive her for what happened? Ampelus still had a scar on her hand from where she held the knife incorrectly. She had been so nervous, she hadn’t noticed she was holding it by the sharp blade until blood had dripped into a pool on the floor and she had done permanent damage. 

She raised her hand in front of her face, staring at the scar and the dark, plum tone of her skin. If she was being honest, she liked the rainbow tints of the gods and nymphs. She may have assumed a false identity, but in the last few months, Ampelus had never felt more like herself than she did on Olympus. There weren’t men telling her what to do. She wasn’t being sold to the highest bidder. Aphrodite’s other children loved her and accepted her as one of their own. Sure, she was still serving the goddess somewhat against her will, but being in service to the goddess of love and beauty wasn’t half as bad as being a woman without choices in the mortal realm. Aphrodite expected her to use her brain and let her personality show on top of being beautiful. 

After all, hadn’t she said she would do anything to make this right?

A flutter of pink feathers flew across her vision. Was that…? It was. Eros. The god she loved and the son of Aphrodite. What was he doing here?

Eros landed about a hundred feet from where Ampelus was seated. She didn’t move, not sure if she should announce herself. But when Eros tilted his head back and called her name, she knew it was alright to answer. 

“I’m over here!”

Eros wasn’t smiling, exactly, but he did look pleased to see her. With a minor hop, he flapped his wings a bit to propel himself toward her. 

“My mother sent me to retrieve you so you wouldn’t have to wait into the night,” Eros said casually. “I assume all went well with the situation?”

“Oh, yes. Everything cleaned up nicely. Would you like an apricot? I seem to have some extra.”

Now a real smile spread over Eros’s face. “I would love that. Shall we enjoy the sunset before heading back to Olympus?”

“I think we shall.”

Silence reigned as they sat and ate their fruit. The sunset was gorgeous. Pinks and oranges bled right into the ground while the purples splashed softly on the edges, leading into the warm grey of twilight. When the dark sky had finally fallen to total night, they sat longer, just looking at the stars. 

“If there’s one thing I miss about the human world, it’s the stars,” said Ampelus quietly. “The splatter of light across the midnight heavens makes me feel…safe. It feels like home.”

“Olympus has stars, too. But I can see why you would like these better. There’s something… peaceful about them.” Eros’s voice was barely above a whisper, as if the sound would disturb their view and the stars would skitter away. 

“I think this is the first time I’ve seen you truly at peace. As if there isn’t a single thing in the world that would make this better.” Ampelus turned to Eros, wondering if he would contradict her. 

Eros thought for a moment before responding. “There is one thing that would make it better, but I fear that she might be lost to me.”

“She?” she asked. 

“Yes,” Eros sighed, “she.”

“Why is she lost to you?”

Eros turned to look at her, “I messed up, and now she’s gone. I went looking for her, but not even her family knows where she is. They think she’s crossed the river in the underworld, but I don’t believe that.”

“You don’t?”

“No,” he shook his head. “Psyche is out there somewhere, but by the time I find her she’ll be old and grey. That’s what happens when you fall in love with mortals. You drastically outlive them.”

Ampelus was silent. The love he was seeking lay but inches from him, but she couldn’t tell him that. It wasn’t possible. But something he had said struck her as odd. 

“You said you messed up. What did you do?”

“I didn’t trust her.” Eros said quickly. “I didn’t tell her I was a god. I didn’t trust her with that information, and she tried to stab me.”

“That sounds like an incredibly abridged version. What really happened?” Ampelus pushed. 

Eros took a breath. “My mother found out about a woman in the human realm named Psyche that was rumored to be more beautiful than her. You can probably imagine how she reacted to that.”

“Knowing Aphrodite? Not well.”

Eros nodded. “Mama told me to make her fall in love with the ugliest creature I could find, but when I got there, all I saw was a woman in need of help. Her family was setting her up for an arranged marriage and Psyche had no way out. So, I stole her away from that place, telling her that I was a monstrous creature to be feared and that she would be safe. I put her up in my apartment and told her I was a rich man that hired the creature to kidnap her.”

“So, you pretended to be two different identities? Why?”

“I didn’t want to scare her. You’ve seen what the gods can do, I wanted her to trust me, but I didn’t even consider that she would accept the monster in me if I told her.” Tears were starting to form in Eros’s eyes. “Anyways, she started to get suspicious because I wouldn’t let her leave the house, since she was human and we were on Olympus, so I let her have some visitors. Her sisters came to visit, and I don’t know what they said to her, but that night she snuck into my room with a dagger. I had hidden my wings from her, but then she saw them on full display.”

“I’ll bet that scared her,” Ampelus chortled. 

“You could say that. She started crying and that’s when I saw the knife in her hand, held out in front of her like she was afraid of me. If I had told her who I was, maybe she wouldn’t have reacted that way, but there’s no way to know now.”

Ampelus thought for a moment. How _would_ she have reacted if he had told her the truth? Would she have embraced it or run screaming from the room? 

The really interesting thing was that Eros blamed himself for what happened, when in reality, she had been the one to threaten him with a knife. She had been the one who bought into her sister’s superstitions and not trusted in the man that saved her from certain hell. Staring that the man that she betrayed, Ampelus felt her heart beat a little louder for him, wishing she could reveal herself and forgive him and ask his forgiveness of her. But that was impossible. Aphrodite’s spell prevented that. 

Eros sighed again. “I suppose I could ask my mother where she went, but I get the feeling she wouldn’t answer me if I did. I asked Mama Bear to go back to the apartment after I left to deal with Psyche because I was too hurt to face her, so I have no idea where she was taken. My mom probably wouldn’t have killed her, but I wouldn’t have put it past her to drop Psyche off in some remote corner of the world to waste away alone.”

Ampelus snorted. “Frankly, I’d be surprised if Psyche is alive. Have you met your mother? She’s terrifying sometimes. And she tends to lash out when she’s emotional.”

“True. But I think Mama would’ve told me if Psyche were dead. She would’ve bragged.” He pulled his knees into his chest and set his chin on them. “Ampelus, can I ask you something?”

She froze. “Sure…”

“Now that I’ve laid my soul bare at your feet, I don’t feel so awkward about asking this. But have we met before? Not before today, but before you started working for my mom. I keep getting this feeling that you’re someone familiar, someone dear, but I have no idea where that comes from.”

Silence rang between them. She couldn’t tell him. She wasn’t allowed to. It was impossible. 

“Yes we have,” Ampelus breathed. 

“Where?”

“I can’t tell you. You have to figure it out yourself.”

Eros stared at her thoughtfully, his eyes dragging over the planes of her face before falling on her lips. “You said once you were almost forced to marry against your will. I didn’t realize nymphs had such traditions.”

“They don’t. Only humans do such horrible things.”

“That’s not true,” Eros snickered. “The gods do it all the time.” He settled back against the tree they had been using for back support. “What kind of nymph are you, again?”

Dangerous territory. Aphrodite hadn’t specified when she transformed Psyche into Ampelus, she had just said ‘nymph’. And this nymph-that-wasn’t-a-nymph wanted so badly for Eros to know who she was. Sitting next to him, feeling his heat so close to her, was slowly torturing her. Each breath he took she prayed for him to realize who she was. So, maybe the truth wouldn’t hurt here. It’s not like she was revealing her identity as Psyche. Maybe if she fed him tiny tidbits, they could end this farce of a situation sooner. 

“I don’t know actually. I was never told.” That was the truth. 

Eros accepted that answer with frustrating ease. “How did you get out of the marriage? You said before you just got lucky, but there has to be more to it than that, right?”

Ampelus/Psyche thought very hard before she answered, hoping that her clues would lead him in the right direction. “I was rescued. By the ugliest creature I’ve ever seen. A monster ripped me from the arms of the terrible man I was supposed to marry and spirited me away to a beautiful house on a floating island.”

~~

Eros wasn’t sure he was breathing. The story Ampelus told was…strikingly familiar. And her eyes. She looked at him and her eyes searched him for _something_ , her tears brimming with some kind of…hope? The words she used…

_I was rescued by the ugliest creature I’ve ever seen._

His eyes dipped away from hers as he thought about the words she said. They clanged through him like a bell peeling from the highest tower of his mind. Pieces of the puzzle he had thought lost came crashing back, all of them fighting for dominance in his brain. It was all he could do not to throw up from the overwhelming sensation of it all. 

Ampelus _was_ Psyche. 

Wasting no more time, he put his hypothesis to the test. Every sense he had was screaming that he had found her, but part of him still thought it was too good to be true. 

“…Psyche?” His voice was no more than a soft croak, the sound catching in the back of his throat slightly. 

Psyche didn’t say anything, she just launched herself into his lap, her arms wrapping around his broad shoulders. The tears she had been holding in since the night she became a nymph flowed down her cheeks and seeped into Eros’s leather armor. 

Eros wrapped his arms around her as she cried, still not sure if this was the answer he was looking for. After a moment, she pulled back to look at him. He asked, “Is it really you?”

This time she nodded, letting out a small squeak through her tears. “The spell you mom put on me to keep me a nymph made sure that I couldn’t reveal myself. You had to figure it out on your own. And I was scared. Scared of you and of myself. I didn’t even know if I wanted you to find me for a while. But I tried my best to leave you as many breadcrumbs as I could. Like the vague comment about arranged marriage.”

“Clearly some of your breadcrumbs worked, because I started asking questions,” Eros smirked at her. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you who I was.”

“I forgive you. But I’m sorry too,” Psyche cried. “My sisters managed to convince me you were some evil wizard that was going to eat me and I didn’t know what to do or who to believe. They gave me the dagger to free myself from you, but when I saw you with your wings, I decided I couldn’t do it. I didn’t want to be free of you and I _understood_ why you hid from me. Why you never told me your name or who you were. I was suddenly furious with myself for doubting you.

“When your mom came to the island, she found me wrapped up in your bed. I begged her to tell me where you were or take me to you, but she said you didn’t want me. That you loved me but couldn’t face me. Eros, I love you. And I trust you. And you’re not the ugliest creature I’ve ever seen. You’re the son of the goddess of beauty, and you inherited some of her inherent charm and loveliness.”

Eros smiled, finally understanding what went wrong. He wiped the tears from her cheeks with his thumb and cupped her face in his hands, his gaze dropping to her lips again. This time, he didn’t ask more questions to distract himself. This time, he captured her lips in a passionate kiss that he felt resonate in his entire being. 

Psyche let out a breathy moan as Eros’s lips touched hers, reveling in the vulnerability of the moment. This was the first time she kissed him with full knowledge of who and what he was. He was _magnificent_. His tongue ran along the seam of her lips and she opened her mouth to let him explore her fully. His hands on her back slid farther south to cup her backside and pull her closer, deeper into his lap, her core pressed against his growing erection. 

Finally, they came up for air. “I love you marry me,” he said in one fast breath. 

Psyche laughed softly, “How? You’re a god, I’m a human.”

“Right now, you’re a nymph, actually,” he grinned at her, nuzzling her neck. 

“But I can’t be a nymph forever,” she countered. 

“I don’t know, but I do know Hera likes me most days, and if anyone can make it happen, it’s the goddess of marriage.” Eros pulled the strap holding up her human clothes off her shoulder and latched his lips onto her collarbone. 

Psyche’s head tipped back as he sucked a possessive mark on her skin. “Eros, I want you, please,” she begged. His hands were working on loosening her dress and she was lost to his touch. The warm night air was pleasant on her breasts and her breathe hitched in her throat at the feeling. 

“Darling, you can have me whenever and wherever you want,” he murmured as he took one perfect purple peak into his mouth. Her hands dove between them as he tasted her and she pulled back the leather coverings protecting his length to take him in hand. A sensual gasp left his lips as she stroked him and thumbed the wetness at his tip. The gasp was followed by a groan. 

Eros hiked up Psyche’s thin skirts and slid a finger up her slick folds the way he knew she liked, and her soft cry was confirmation of that. Being the god of sex and sexual desire, Eros knew exactly where that little nub was that would please her. 

“Please, just take me, Eros!” she whined into the darkness, and he was happy to oblige her. He had the rest of her life to take his time with her, tonight would be fast and hard like they needed. He lifted her off his lap and laid her in the soft grass at the base of the tree, replacing her hand on him with his. He wrapped one long lovely leg around his waist and guided himself into her, slow enough to make sure she wasn’t hurt in the process. 

It only took a moment before he was fully seated inside her. She begged for him to move and to pound her hard, and her voice was all it took for him to do just that. The wet slap of skin on skin was covered mostly by her cries of pleasure that were laced with his name. Finally, she knew his name and could use it. 

“Eros, _please_ , I’m…” she begged him again, the thought overcome by her impending orgasm. 

“Say my name again, Psyche,” he said low, feeling that familiar heat curl in the pit of his stomach, waiting for the right cue from his length inside her. His balls tightened at the prospect of climax. 

“Yes, _Eros_ , I—” She once again cut herself off, this time with a true scream as he pushed her over the edge and her muscles squeezed him through her orgasm. That was all it took to pull him over the threshold. He spilled into her as his vision whited out and he panted her name. 

It was all he could do not to collapse on top of her. Instead, he grabbed her hips and rolled her over on top of him, their bodies still connected. 

“So, do we tell my mother that I know who you really are, or should we let her go on with the charade a little longer?” breathed Eros when he finally could form thoughts again. 

Psyche sighed, “I think we should make her stew in it a little bit longer. But I’ll come by the house every opportunity I get.”

“You certainly will _come_ ,” he said, letting the double entendre sink in. She giggled at his antics, snuggling into his leather armor. 

“I love you, Eros,” she said, looking up into his eyes. 

“I love you too, Psyche.”


End file.
